Compartment Door Water Leak Fixed

[Robert D. Grant]

I have waited a while to report this "fix" in order to validate that it is really fixed. Well, with the torrential rains that we have experienced since the "fix", I feel safe to report that it is really "fixed". Based on a suggestion by Brett at Born Free, we drilled holes in the bottom of the compartment door under the sofa. The water that was apparently penetrating into the door and leaking thru the inside of the door onto the carpet, now drains out the bottom of the door.

[bill crommett]

That seems like a sloppy fix for a leak that was not supposed to happen in the first place. But at least it keeps you unit dry.
I had a similar leak but the factory re-adjusted the compartment door to fix it.

[bcope01]

Bob, please post some pictures of the holes you drilled. I don't have and leaks now, but if I get one I'd like to know how to fix it quickly.

Thanks, Bill

[Dallas Baillio]

As I have mentioned before, I live where we gets lots of rain and I store my BF outside. Because I found rain water collected in the lower portion of many outside access doors, I drilled several half inch holes on the underside of almost every door -- generator, battery, under couch, propane, etc. My purpose was not to stop inside leaks, but to keep the doors dry.

[David and Susan Bratt]

Are these holes drilled on the down facing edge of the door?

[Robert D. Grant]

David & Susan,

Yes.

Barb & Bill,

Will post a picture later this week. Born Free is at storage facility.
We also drilled the other doors as a precaution.

[harrisgowing]

Bob, we have a similar leak and are looking forward to the pictures. Thank you very much!

[rv4fun]

Is there any chance that bare plywood was exposed around the sides of the drilled holes? Did you need to do anything to seal the sides of the holes? It seems like water draining through the holes drilled through the floor might cause some water problems for the sub-floor. But, maybe this isn't a problem at all with the way you did it.. Larry

[Robert D. Grant]

Larry,

The holes are drilled thru the bottom edge of the door, not the sub-floor. This allows the water which apparently is penetrating the ouside periphery of the door to drain out the bottom of the door to the outside without building up inside the door and penetrating thru the inside of the door into the compartment area and sub-floor. I will try to get over to the storage area tomorrow to get a digital image that I can post to make it clear what we did.

Bob

[rv4fun]

Bob, Thanks for the reply. I knew I wasn't understanding something.. Larry

[Sab & Ann]

Attached is a sketch of how we fixed our compartment door water leaks.
Practice your skills on the inside first before you attempt the outside RTV bead. You will have a nice looking bead and it will keep the water out of your compartment.
Sab & Ann

[Robert D. Grant]

Attached are pictures illustrating the drilled holes in the bottom edge of the compartment doors. Image #1 shows the bottom edge of the large compartment door behind the driver's seat and under the sofa. It almost always got wet under the sofa when it rained until we drilled these holes. As a precaution we also drilled the other compartment doors. Image #2 shows the bottom edge of the rear compartment door next to the water heater as an example.

[Jim Hofmann]

Thank you both, Sab and Bob for your posts on this subject. It looks like Sab's approach attacks the cause of the water being a problem, and Bob's approach is a method to solve the water entry. I think I will try the RTV bead first. It would seem that keeping the water out of the channal is better than draing it out later.
Thanks again guys
Jim

[Jim Hofmann]

Duplicate post of above was deleted by the bfadmin. The typical cause of most duplicate posts is that the submitter clicked the Submit button more than once!

[Mel Wilbur]

I agree that although both of the above work well, another source of water accumulation is the lock. I have removed a couple that turned out to be quite rusty, replaced them with new locks and resealed them which did cure the leak problem.